Search This Blog

Pages

Posts

After reading an article about Facebook annoyances I decided to look at and analyze my Facebook. I used to have lots of friends but have cut a bunch until I only have a few. Because I cut a lot of people who weren't really friends I enjoy my Facebook and keep track of friends and family from all over.
1.Friend re-posted something something in Russian. Her friend needs help!
2.Friend posted a funny comment to a funny picture of George Lucas that I shared with my brother because we like to make fun of George Lucas
3. Actor posts liberal political stuff against guns even though he plays a gun loving, violent character on TV.
4. Friend posts a funny picture that I loved enough to share. I got two likes. It is about my lack of exercise.
5. Friend is listening to lots of music on Spotify.
6. A recipe for kids is shared that looks pretty interesting.
7. Picture of kids enjoying recipe
8. George Takei
9. One of those inspirational cards
20. An important announcement regarding an upcom…

Right now I have too many shows to keep up with. It hasn't been that way in a while. At the same time, some of my past favorite shows are now getting dull. First, I will tell you those.

I watched The Young and the Restless because my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother watched it. I was a legacy! I began to become bored about the time Sharon went to New Orleans. I lost my interest completely when I realized that the writers were simply recycling stories are trying to create drama by having someone commit adultery. Jumping into bed with someone after only flirting with them one day is not drama. The Victor and Nicky story is old and tired. Last month I took the show off of my DVR after not watching it for three months.

Modern Family still makes me laugh here and there but it has grown stale. Cameron and Mitchell come across as the stupidest parents I have ever seen. I know people will get mad for me saying that but episode after episode of them making the same mistakes like…

After having Eli. I have had a difficult time with weight. I could not lose it easily like I could in the past. I wasn't gaining either so I didn't worry too much. About three weeks ago I finally weaned Mr. Eli and it has been a nightmare. Eli sleeping patterns are crazy and so is my weight gain.

I started being more active. I even cut down a lot of crappy foods. Instead of losing weight, I was gaining. I am currently the heaviest I have ever been in my life and I am real depressed about that. The problem is for me is that I stress eat so I am eating because I am stressed out that I am gaining weight. Yeah, makes total sense!

Plus there is now a cancer scare. I think it is a 90% chance that it is just a scare. I had an abnormal pap smear but I had one before and it came out all right. I also have to get tested for ovarian cancer. Also, not too worried. Ovarian cancer is not in my family. We have diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's , breast cancer and even some crazies but…

I am always so happy to have family come to visit. I hate living in Virginia by myself. My brother and his family came for Easter and gave me a challenge. They wanted to wake up and get to DC by 6AM to get tickets to the Department of the Treasury. We made it a little late so we weren't able to get tickets until 6:15PM. We had already paid for parking so we couldn't leave and come back. We had to stay in DC all day. I took the challenge.

As none of the museums were open we went to the Forestry Department museum and saw Smokey the Bear. Smokey scared Eli to death and the kids got posters that we had to drag around town all day. Then we went to the American History Museum. We saw parts of the museum I hadn't seen before. Then we walked to McDonald's and ate lunch all the way near Chinatown. Then we walked around the outside of the Archives because there was a 3 hour wait to get inside. Then we went to the National Gallery of Art, my favorite place in DC. Then we walked f…

I wasn't planning on eating out today, but I saw a sign in front of Wendy's for their new flatbread sandwich and couldn't resist. It looked delicious not to mention healthy at under 500 calories.

I ordered the Asiago Ranch Flatbread Sandwich because I love Wendy's Asiago Ranch sandwiches. What made this sandwich different was the bread. The bread is what I loved most about this sandwich. The sandwich had the perfect mix of acidity and toasty grilled flavor. It definitely did not taste like a fast food sandwich.

I looked for the sandwich on Wendy's website but could not find it. I hope it makes their menu. I hated Wendy's since they changed the french fry menu and this sandwich just might get me going back to Wendy's.

I am still searching for meals my kids will eat. So far we have spaghetti, tacos, quesadillas, and chicken adobo. Tonight I am going to try Sweet and Sour Chicken from a recipe I found on Disneyfamily.com. It has soy sauce, ketchup, and sugar so it can't be too bad.

I have to cook 2 pounds of chicken because it is getting more and more difficult to have enough food for my kids. Ever since I weaned Eli, he has been eating like a pig. I think Eli eats more than anyone else right now. He eats waffles, apple sauce, and anything that I happen to be eating. He loves to beg his father for food the most though. I think Eli does it as a way to bond with his daddy. Eli is 20 months old now and can pretty much eat anything.

Another boy that is getting older is Jon who just turned 9. Jon still loves Star Wars, a life long love that began when he was 1 year old. Now he collects Star Wars the Clone Wars Lego Mini-figures. He even makes custom mini-figures. They entertain him for hours. He also …

I haven't written for a while. I know I don't have many readers anyway, so I have low motivation. I haven't had too much time to really work on my blog and make it pretty, etc. I also hate that "Mommy blogging" has taken over blogging. Blogging has become a huge "Look how much better of a mother and wife I am than YOU!" thing. Since I think that is boring, I guess I won't earn followers in my demographic. I HAVE thought about doing a parody of one though.

I just haven't had time since our move to our new house. Moving is hell! I remember the old days of borrowing my parents' van to move my entire apartment to another. Moving was so easy back then. Now with four kids moving is a huge hassle. I hope we don't have to do it again for a while.

I also have been dealing with a lot of pain. I have a complex ovarian cyst that hurts so bad I feel like I am giving birth. Because of the pain I am limited on what I can do. I feel sick and nauseous ev…

If I ever meet Rick Riordan I want to give him a huge hug because his books teach my children so much. I have tried to teach them about mythology, important to the understanding of much of Western culture without out much success. Since reading Rick Riordan's books they tell me all of the time about Greek gods and Greek words. They know Percy Jackson is a modern retelling of Perseus. Then there is the story of Jason. They love it. They told me about drachma and demigods that just gets their English major mother all excited.
For the first time I see my son, Jon, loving to read.

For some reason I just can't get them into Harry Potter.

I am also reading The Hobbit to the boys and they are LOVING it! I believe that was one of the reasons for mythology, for entertainment. Myths tell beautiful wonderful stories without affecting your faith in the one true God one bit.

My daughter tells me Rick Riordan will do Norse gods next. I am so excited! I wonder if he will do Celtic myths?

This is now our favorite dish. After some experimentation I figured out how to make the rice they have at hibachi restaurants at home. After spending $70 at a restaurant, I had to figure it out.

Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar (I actually used apple cider vinegar, in restaurants they use a type of cooking sake I think)
1 tablespoon of honey (I tried sugar but it wasn't as good)
Mix it all together in a cup

Cook three eggs for two cups of cooked short grain rice. First melt some MARGARINE (not butter as it burns and gives the rice too strong of a butter flavor) in a wok. Crack open the eggs in the wok and scramble them at the bottom. Then add two cups of cooked rice (I would use day old rice) Stir fry the rice and eggs together. Then pour the sauce over the top and stir fry until brown. Super awesome! I stir fry teriyaki chicken and vegetables separately.

Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves came out in 1991 and starred Kevin Costner. It was a fun interpretation of the Robin Hood story and had great reviews and earned lots of money. It cast the popular Kevin Costner with Morgan Freeman as his wise Obi Wan Kenobi companion. Bryan Adams had a hit song "Everything I Do, I Do For You" that was over played on early nineties radio. As I was always obsessed with Medieval History I fell in love with this movie despite inaccuracies. I was 16 when I first saw it around 1992. The problem with this movie was that I fell in love with the Sheriff of Nottingham, the nasty bad guy and thought Kevin Costner's Robin Hood was a "dork". That is what happens when someone is a bad actor and this movie showed how weak Costner's acting was compared to his supporting cast and his villain, Alan Rickman.

Alan Rickman "hammed" it up in this film and the audience could tell he was enjoying his role as the villain. Every line, no matt…

My son is a huge Superman fan. He has been keeping an eye on the new Superman movie coming this year, Man of Steel. Every extra glimpse I get of this movie looks great. I am getting used to Henry Cavill being Superman but not too excited about Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent. His performance was the weakest parts of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and JFK. At least the part is not a main character. Maybe I just don't like Kevin Costner as the main star and can tolerate him as a supporting character.

This is the latest video from my brother who just launched Achtuleba Films. In it he tells why Mortal Kombat is the best video ever. Is it the graphics or the creative Mortal Kombat fatalities? Is this a promise of a series of video game reviews? Who knows what will come next out of Achtuleba Films.

"Antinous, who was alive but lately, and whom all were prompt, through fear, to worship as a god, though they knew both who he was and what was his origin." Justin Martyr 150 AD

A few years ago my husband and I went to London. It was my husband's gift to me as he knows I am obsessed with British history. It was great to not only spend private time with my husband, but to see places that I have spent over 20 years of my life studying and reading about. I dragged my husband all over London to see my favorite places and to see the tombs of my favorite historical people. After a few days, my husband became tired and so I went to the British museum by myself. That was a very good decision because I got to take time to see the amazing exhibits and my dear husband got to have a quiet day to relax.

I was fascinated by the ancient British artifacts and saw the famous Sutton Hoo mask I read so much about. I teared up the in Medieval room as Medieval history is my specialty and in…

Nothing annoys me more than crazy conspiracy theories. I remember the first crazy one I heard about the CIA bringing crack to the inner city. Of course the conspiracy theories multiplied after 9/11 happened. Now I am hearing that people are saying that what happened at Sandy Hook was a conspiracy theory. I think that when you don't believe that people can actually be evil it is easier to believe in a vast conspiracy especially in today's confusing world.

Yesterday I read comments under an article about Aaron Swartz saying he did not commit suicide but that he was killed by the vast Zionist world government which currently chose Obama as its leader. The idea of a young man committing suicide hurts. It is easier to believe our government was behind it. The suicide happened not long after what seemed to be an epidemic of public mass shootings the worst of which occurred at Sandy Hook. Now I am reading that the government was behind Sandy Hook and a neighbor of the school, Gene Ro…

Usually Aron, my 6 year old, obsessively talks about super heroes. I can tell me all of the stats of his favorite super heroes like Superman, The Flash, and Green Arrow. Aron loves DC Comicbook heroes unlike his older brother who is a Marvel fan. Recently he has been loving Young Justice Robin and Nightwing.

When we go to the library he usually goes straight to the comic book section to pick out his favorite super hero book for the 5th or 6th time. He will grab 5 or 6 and I usually have to fight with him to return some of them for I know he won't read them. Jon liked to hear the stories. Aron likes to look at the pictures and make up his own.

Well, the other day Aron had to go to the dentist to get another filling (this was his 5th and 6th ones). While I waited for Aron, 18 month old Eli went for his first cleaning which required three women, the dentist, her assistant, and myself to hold him down. Aron was calm and did not complain the entire time he was getting drilled. I guess …

My husband loves Olive Garden, especially Zuppa Toscana. We are happy to go to Olive Garden just to get the soup. We hate waiting for a table and going to restaurants are not a good idea with a toddler. My toddler loves to scream in restaurants. He gets lots of stares and attention when he screams. He hasn't learned that not all attention is good attention.

This is how I made Zuppa Toscana or Tuscan Soup, a hearty soup with kale and sausage. Brown Italian Sausage with garlic and chopped onion. Pour 2 cans of chicken broth in with a quart of water. Then add some chopped potato (keep the skins on it) and let it simmer. After about 20 minutes add 1 cup of evaporated milk and 1 cup of kale. It came out great.

For the main meal I made chicken alfredo. I admit I cheated and used the Velveeta box dinner with frozen cooked chicken. I did add some extra garlic. Hey! My kids loved it. The Velveeta box dinners are better than Hamburger Helper by the way.

As many of you know, Doctor Who is my favorite show to watch. I started watching it a couple of years ago when I read an article that said "Weeping Angels" were the scariest monster ever shown on television. So I found the Doctor Who episode "Blink" and tried it out. After that, I got hooked and have converted many to "Whovianism" and now we watch it as a family.

I started watching a new British show, Merlin and quickly discovered that many of the actors on Merlin have also been guests on Doctor Who. Here are some fun facts about Merlin actors who made surprise visits on Doctor Who.

MERLIN- Colin Morgan- The main character of the show Merlin who plays a gifted young wizard with a great destiny.

He was the snarky teen, Jethro, on the Doctor Who episode, "Midnight"

GWEYN- Angel Coulby Lady-in-waiting to the Lady Morgana with a great destiny

There is nothing that makes me happier than seeing my children smile. The past year gymnastics meets were not the place to see smiles. Jon did not place in a competition in over a year so what I usually saw at competitions was a tired shrug and a "maybe next time will be better."

Maybe this competition will be better. The Jerrell Steele competition in Richmond was one of my son's favorites. It was his first ever competition when he was Level 4. In his first event, he placed 1st and got 9th overall. Maybe that will boost his confidence and he will do better in this competition, only his second this season because of an earlier bout of norovirus last November. My stomach was in knots as my son began his warm ups the first hour. I noticed his legs were not straight and though he successfully did every move, it wasn't clean. I could tell he was nervous and he slipped pretty bad when he practiced vault. Because I was by myself I could move freely around the stadium to take…

I always hear that having Netflix Streaming is not worth it, and that there is nothing ever on. It depends on what you are looking for. I find that Netflix is a perfect way to watch television shows. It is commercial free and you don't have to wait a week to watch the next episode. I have watched entire series in just a couple of days. That is especially easy to do with British Serials which run shorter than American ones. This superior way of watching shows may change the genre in the future. They will be called serials rather than TV shows and will be shown in a series rather than an episode at a time. (they are called series and serials in Europe) I hope studios will make serials ready for streaming and maybe connect the serial to a website where viewers can get more information and give feedback about a serial in order to make additional money. I know Netflix previously came out with a serial Lilyhammer which I enjoyed except for the over use of the "f" word. (I thi…

I got a Samsung Chromebook for Christmas and I am in love! I don't like tablets as I love traditional keyboards. This laptop is simple and light, perfect for those who want to do simple internet surfing and blogging. It is definitely worth $250. The Google OS takes getting used to but I love it now.

I had delicious pork at my brother's house in Tennessee so I decided to make a pork roast after New Year's. I made it the traditional way with a few spices and in a crock pot for 12 hours. At dinner when we ate the pork the kids and I all made the same conclusion- it needed barbecue! We just weren't a plain pork and sauerkraut family. Also, my husband was raised to hate pork so he really doesn't want to taste it.The next day I poured barbecue over the pork roast in the crock pot and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. It came out beautifully. We put the new barbecue on hamburger buns and hate potatoes, mac and cheese, and a salad with it. Did I ghetto-fy my pork roast dinner? At least my picky eaters loved it!I have discovered that Eli's favorite meal is mac and cheese. As that is also Jon's I will be making mac and cheese a lot more in the future. I make it my grandmother's way with Velveeta cheese. None of that powdered stuff though I think the boys would …

I had a wonderful Christmas break. It wasn't relaxing but it was a lot of fun. I saw all of my brothers and their wives and my nieces and nephews. I don't have a great relationship with my extended family but I have a beautiful relationship with my immediate family. I don't mean to sound awful but I think part of that is that I have no sisters so there is less drama :-) The bad thing about that is that I come out to be the dramatic one. It didn't help that I had a kidney infection and was about to start my first menstrual period in two years.

When I am nursing a baby, I do not have cycles. I am normally a very regular person so not having a cycle messes my body up after a while. In December, my son was 18 months old and still nursing. My body was bloated and in pain. My back around where the kidneys are were in terrible pain so I was never comfortable. My bladder was irritated and I had restless legs syndrome. I was terribly constipated and my stomach felt like it was …

The last post I made was on Halloween! In the blogging world, I have fallen off the edge of the world! O really don't have much of an excuse except that I have had the worst writer's block. I struggled even to write a simple Tweet or a Facebook status. Changes in the country, family drama, and a new house are behind one of the greatest writer's blocks of my life!

As many of you know, I am a libertarian that votes GOP. I vote GOP mainly because of the two parties, the GOP stands for smaller government compared to the Democratic Party. I also do not like Democrat foreign policy and social programs. I am also staunchly anti-abortion except in extreme cases that should be between a doctor and patient instead of for social reasons. I was excited about Mitt Romney. He isn't the most libertarian candidate, but his ideas were more positive than Obama's. My husband and I worked hard for his campaign and the day before the election I attended a rally for Mitt Romney with m…